Trevor Champ passed way in January following a short illness. He became Chairman of the Irish Specimen Fish Committee (ISFC) in 2002 and served with great enthusiasm until his untimely death. He was proud of the contribution of the ISFC’s annual report to the promotion of quality Irish angling and the collection of data about angler-caught specimen fish. Under his stewardship the ISFC advanced and improved its operations by developing its website, introducing genetic identification for several species, guiding the introduction of additional species to the Specimen Species List and …

In 2005 the ISFC added a clause to Rule 4 which facilitated anglers who wished to present photographs for fish identification purposes instead of presenting a fish body.
This means that where a body is normally required, a photograph (or photographs) may be sufficient if it provides conclusive evidence of the identity of the fish. To assist anglers a list of the some external identification features for these particular species are presented below. However, the Committee cautions that a body, which will be examined by a biologist, is the …

I have fished my way around the world, both ways, taking in all the exotic game fishing meccas on the way. However, I have to admit, I would sooner go to my beloved west of Ireland than any of these other lovely places. This is how much I value what the west has to offer.
Last season on a day of baking heat and flat calm windless situation, I tried something new. It was late June and the salmon were not in Kylemore Abbey Lake and we could not wet-fly fish …

Year’s end is a very busy time for the Irish Specimen Fish Committee with the finalisation of specimen fish claims and production of the annual report. PETER GREEN, Sea Angling Advisor with the Central Fisheries Board, relates how sea angling charter skippers contribute so much to the work of logging specimens, ongoing monitoring of fish migrations through a marine fish tagging programme and recording of specific information on deep sea angling effort for the season.
Some anglers may not be aware that the majority of specimen fish caught in salt water …

Twenty-one anglers from the Howth Sea Angling Club in Dublin, including Derek Evans, the Irish Times angling correspondent, recently travelled to the Canary Islands for a one week angling expedition in search of tuna. Tuna fishing has a special attraction and even though anglers in other boats landed tuna up to 127 kg in weight, the Howth contingent was unsuccessful and had to be content with exotic species such as red snapper, puffer and bonito in addition to less exotic species including scad, spurdog, sting ray and eels. …

In 1997, the death took place in Lahinch, Co. Clare of Jack Shine – a true legend in the sport of sea angling. He is sadly missed by his family and friends. Jack was a gentle man and must have been the most innovative sea angler this country has ever seen.
In the early 1930’s, Dr. O’Donel Brown took numerous porbeagle to 365 lbs from a small boat off Achill – a great achievement for his day. However, Jack decided to go a step further. He set out to land porbeagle …

“Update me, Kevin”, I said to Linnane on the phone. I was talking about my specimen fish scoreline, which, I knew, stopped short, datewise, when I went to live in the U.S.A, back in 1975. I was confident, though, that I had nine and that I needed just one more specimen to bring me up to the coveted total of 10.
A few days later, my list of big fish captures came in the post.
I called Kevin again. “There’s been a computer error”, I told him confidently.“You’ve only got seven listed …

IN THE EARLY YEARS, the clean waters of the River Erne flowed between the two lakes at Killykeen in Lough Oughter. With little access to that location in the forest, there was no bridge. It was there that we caught big slimy bream to 7 lbs and we learned to use the crust of our precious sandwiches for the lovely rudd around 2 lbs, which fed in the weedy stretch.
When we launched into the development and promotion of coarse angling tourism in the 1950’s, we were to learn that our …

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The ISFC is a voluntary body that relies entirely on funding from agencies and anglers in order to operate. In recent years our funding levels have been reduced substantially and this threatens our long term viability.
If you value the work the ISFC does, we would appreciate if you could make a small donation here.